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Poorer Relations
We recently drove past the new county animal shelter without realizing what the building was. When we saw the sign, Mrs. Orr and I both exclaimed, “So that’s where it is!” We had heard that a new, badly-needed shelter had been opened and that many cats and dogs were up for adoption. For some mysterious reason, I decided today to look at the shelter’s website. I scrolled through the photos and read some of the descriptions. Then I was brought up short by one dog for whom the shelter is seeking what they call “a forever home.” The dog was described as a female blue heeler mix, about 2-4 years…
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Intact Routine
Yesterday was one of the most perfect days I can remember. When we awoke, a cool front had blown in and it was raining steadily. After feeding the dogs, my wife started breakfast (breakfast burritos from scratch…just one more element in a perfect day) and I took the spotted menace out for a soaking ramble through the hills. The mist was curling like Fafnir’s breath, silver and sinister, reaching into hidden places erupting from black chasms in the slick rock. We padded along, Jinx’s paws making a curious leatherlike sound on the wet leaves. We walked and looked and stopped and gazed and strolled and smiled — yes, Jinx smiles…
- Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Music, Photographs, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections, Saints
Squinting Towards Armageddon
“I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” ~ Flannery O’Connor Before I set down the day’s thoughts, I want to express my humble gratitude for the many warm and supportive comments I received on my most recent post (the most comments I’ve ever received, in fact!). When I say “humble gratitude,” I mean exactly that. I am grateful for the kindness, but I am also humbled by the display from you, my readers who mean more to me than you can know. I also wanted to say that I’m somewhat chagrined after re-reading the post, which I had composed at the end of a weary…
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Not Sure Whose Will Be Done
I’ve long detested men who cultivate trademarks and eccentricities. Far too many in my past and present who wear garish socks, or inappropriate hats, or bizarre haircuts or outlandishly-sculpted facial hair, or a certain color of clothing every day (because the world needs more Johnny Cashes), or who steeple their fingers when offering their ninth-hand opinions, or who fondle pipes and cigars because a certain professor did so, or who carry hundred-dollar water bottles snapped onto their noncombatant and too-wide hips. It’s one thing to have a natural quirk; many men have them. But to read the biography of a famous or infamous man and then affect an eccentric mannerism…
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Coming To You Live….
… from the Lone Star State. We’re on our summer jaunt to Texas, visiting son and daughter-in-law and two grandsons, soaking up the heat and the singular atmospheric vibe that is The Republic of Texas. We’ve been rained on, slobbered on by a beautiful Golden Retriever, nibbled on by a tiny rat masquerading as a chihuahua/poodle mix, read to by an intense and beaming blonde boy, treated to homemade purple hull peas and jalapeno poppers courtesy of MooMoo, wooed with promises of smoked brisket by Joshie-O, serenaded by another blonde grandson with a two-fisted corndog technique, watched a diamondback rattler making his way through a busy intersection, and have been…
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Happy Birthday, Nanny
You would have been one hundred and twenty one years old. You and your ways are as clear in my memory as creek water and pebbles scooped up and held in my hand. And I love you, Nanny. I will see you in Heaven someday. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let Your perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen. Happy Birthday to Kristian, also. ~ S.K. Orr
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Thursday In Holy Week
It’s a shame that we’re going to have some snow today, along with freezing temperatures the next two nights. The blooms and blossoms around our little farm are particularly zestful right now, with the peach trees, dogwood, redbud, forsythia, pear trees, daffodils, and various bulbs all in full glory. It would have been a spectacular Easter Sunday morning, but will probably be somewhat muted. Ah, well. The good Lord knows what He’s doing. Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of my wife’s beloved father. Pawpaw was a remarkable person, a self-made man in every sense of the term. Forced to leave school at age eight in order…
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Not Dark Yet
Our eldest son sent me a song in a message and said, “I can’t get this song out of my head. It seems to sum up the mood of the world these days.” I listened to it and enjoyed the brooding, shadowy tone, so I thought I’d share it tonight while the rain falls and the cattle call to each other across the hollers. The lights are out in America, my friends. But Christ Jesus is still the light of the world, and I pray that we can — all of us — take heart. ~ S.K. Orr
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In the Lenten Season
Yesterday on Ash Wednesday, while Catholics were filing into churches (the few that are open, that is) to assist at Mass and to receive the ashes upon their foreheads. While this ancient ritual was going on, I was sitting in a podiatrist’s office, describing my symptoms and listening to the proposed treatment. The joint of my great right toe has been very stiff and painful for some time, and has been increasingly difficult to flex. It has begun to affect my gait, and I figured I’d better have it looked at before the warm weather arrives and my activity level increases with the arrival of grass and weeds and so…
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Comfortable And Peaceful
It just came to me. Two days ago, our heat pump, aging and creaking thing that it was, died on us. I discovered the problem on a morning when it was 26F outside. By that evening, it wasn’t much warmer inside. To say that Christmas will be lean this year is to undersell the truth. Almost six grand to replace everything that needs replacing. Tomorrow morning, the HVAC fellows will return and install the new unit. Or as my wife and I have begun calling it, our joint Christmas gift to each other. Some people take Caribbean cruises. The Orrs get big, heavy objects that heat and cool their…